Author: Laurence Sithole

In 2005 Willcox’s 4.4% interest in the formerly JSE listed and now defunct Mvela Group was estimated to be worth in the region of ZAR 118 million. This was the mainstay of his wealth.

Mining MX reported that Willcox trained as a lawyer, obtaining an LLB from the University of Cape Town. After a stint in the US, he returned to South Africa, where he became involved in commercial law. While structuring a transaction in 1998 involving diamond assets near Kimberley, Willcox first met Sexwale.

Black Economic Empowerment is an emotive topic in South Africa and southern Africa. Countries on the African continent were historically colonized by largely European countries that assumed control over political and economic control over their colonies. The colonies were governed through a political system of white minority rule where the settlers as it was exercised political control and ruled over the entire population. The natives …

If the security falls in price, the investor or trader will purchase the security from the market at the prevailing low price and deposit the security back with the broker. The profit for the investor or trader is the difference between the price at which they would have sold at the initial phase of the trade and the price at which they buy back the security when they close out the trade. A strong warning is in order here: this kind of trading (margin trading and short selling) is strictly for the sophisticated investor or trader.

It should never be attempted by a novice or a person with a low tolerance for risk. These trades involve the use of leverage and the use of margin which means that should the trade go sideways the investor or trader stands to lose much more than they would have invested.

In the example …

According to Statista, agriculture contributes at least 4% of the annual value added to the gross domestic product of Brazil. It accounts for at least 9% of the people who are employed and able to work. On the face of it reading numbers 4% and 9% seem like they are nominal until one considers the sheer size of the country of Brazil in terms of land mass. Brazil is one of the largest countries in the world in terms of land area. It sits on no less than 8.5 million square kilometres.

Of this land mass, approximately a third is used for agriculture. For perspective’s sake, Brazil is the fifth largest country in the world after Russia, Canada, China, and the United States. The Brazilian Report states that all the countries that make up the European Union would fit inside Brazil’s borders!

To bring the perspective much closer to home, …

Ghana’s case specifically plays out with the dramatic effect consistent with a Shakespearean tragedy. The west African nation ironically is a darling of the West in terms of foreign direct investment. Yet, its debt levels have breached what multilateral institutions consider to be sustainable. A painful irony in the case of Ghana is that it was offered the opportunity to renegotiate the terms of its debts through the World Bank’s Debt Service Suspension Initiative. However, Ghana did not elect to participate.

A second painful irony is that Ghana, this time around, does not owe most of its debts to multilateral institutions like the International Monetary Fund or the World Bank. It owes the bulk of its debt to private lenders like the world’s largest asset manager Black Rock, and its has expressed that it has no interest in renegotiating the terms of Ghana’s sovereign debt.

If Ghana had borrowed from …

His fortune is estimated to be worth a staggering US$148 billion. He is second only to Tesla founder and eccentric billionaire Elon Musk. Very interesting to note is the fact that the rise of Adani into the high stakes of global wealth is also the first time that two of the wealthiest individuals in the world are from countries that comprise the BRICS nations.

Though now a US citizen, Elon Musk has South African heritage, and Adani is an Indian national.

That two of the richest men in the world are from BRICS countries is indicative of the emergence of the bloc. Adani is the first person of Indian descent to occupy the position. Adani is the chairman of the Adani Group, which operates a litany of businesses in coal mining, infrastructure, and thermal power generation. His companies also operate private airports and firms. According to media reports, Adani’s wealth …

Because of erratic economic policy, Zimbabwe continues to be the sick man of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region.

The country perennially goes from one economic crisis to the next. Presently Zimbabwe is battling with resurgent inflation after managing to rein it in from the hyperinflationary levels reached in the years 2019 to 2020 and during the early months of 2021, peaking at over 837%.

Currently, Zimbabwe’s inflation stands at approximately 257%. Conventionally, the origins of inflation have been and always will be excessive money supply that outstrips the rate of growth in an economy resulting in too much money chasing too few goods and services. In the case of Zimbabwe, the inflation malaise was compounded by the fact that the economy is virtually stagnant, growing only marginally.

• Zimbabwe’s economic policy has been erratic.
• The government in Zimbabwe has recently adopted a scorched earth policy against inflation by tightening

The continent in the near future will have the largest population in the world. The population of Africa is urbanizing as citizens of the nations of the continent migrate from rural to urban areas.

This addition to its vast natural resources is a potent combination for its rapid economic expansion. The world witnessed first-hand the economic miracle where China transformed itself from a rural backwater in 1949 when the modern Chinese state was founded to an economic and military superpower by 2019. The year 2019 is significant to China because the country celebrated 70 years of its founding as a communist state, and the Asian country gained worldwide recognition as a military superpower.

China put on a military parade that displayed a weapons arsenal that made the United States sit up and take notice. How was this possible? China’s economic transformation was because of several factors. One of the most …

The United States dollar has reportedly appreciated to levels last seen 20 years ago and shows no signs of slowing down. According to Capital.com, “The ICE US Dollar Index (DXY) – a measure of the currency’s strength against a basket of rival currencies including the euro (EUR), Japanese yen (JPY) and British pound (GBP) – stood at 109.5 on 19 September 2022. The index was up over 14% from the start of the year, but down marginally from the 110.51 mark reached on 7 September – its highest level since 2002.”

The Federal Reserve, the US central bank, is giving further steam to the greenback through its aggressive interest rate stance. The Federal Reserve has raised interest rates a total of four times during 2022 for a total of 2.25 percentage points.

The result is that investors are piling into the US dollar, salivating into the fray as they chase …

Growthpoint Properties Limited published its financial results for 2021 on the 15^th of September 2022.

The real estate investment trust (REIT) is the largest such listed entity on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange and is reliable indicator for the sector as a whole. The real estate sector in South Africa as in the rest of the world was one of the biggest casualties of the COVID pandemic. REITs on the JSE were not spared.

The COVID pandemic created a perfect storm for property owners in South Africa. When COVID spread to the rest of the world after beginning in Wuhan in China in 2019 two things happened that adversely affected the REIT sector on the JSE including Growthpoint.

• Growthpoint Properties Limited which is the largest REIT listed on the JSE announced its results on the 15^th of September 2022.
• Results for the REIT reflected an improved operating environment for

The remainder of Anglo’s coal assets were demerged from the group and bundled into a new company called Thungela Resources Limited. This strategy in coal mining circles is called “mine to mouth” and is being continued by Seriti. Eskom, South Africa’s power utility, has an agreement where its thermal power stations are fed with coal from the company’s Kriel and New Largo mines. These mines are adjacent to the power stations.

Seriti Resources (the company’s name is from the native Sotho language and means integrity) was formed in 2017. Mike Teke, through his investment vehicle Masimong Holdings Group owns 25% of Seriti Resources.

The remainder of the shares in the energy company is owned by Sandile Zungu’s Zungu Investments Company, Thebe Investments Corporation, and Community Investment Holdings.…